Public Opinion Polls

It is very common today to hear public opinion polls by everyone from George Gallup to George Barna on everything from political races. Aren't you glad that's done? To moral issues, to social issues, to cultural trends, to even who's going to be on the All Star team in baseball. There are cultural trends and everything that we can think of that is politicized today and given public opinion in the polls. Well today we're going to see a public opinion poll of sorts in John chapter 11. Remember the story that leads up to our passage today. The story we saw last week was the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead. I believe the most astounding, most amazing miracle that Jesus ever performed was the raising of Lazarus from the dead and it is as though there is a reporter from the Jerusalem Daily Telegraph standing outside after that miracle to poll people as they leave. Yes, an exit poll who will poll them as to what their response is to this great miracle that they've witnessed. And what we have in John's record of the events that follows the raising of Lazarus from the dead is really kind of an exit poll of people's response to that great miracle. There are four different responses to what happened and we're going to look today at those responses, the responses of people to Jesus miracle. Now we don't have the pie chart, we don't have the percentages, we don't know how many people responded in which way, but we do know there were at least four responses to this great miracle. We're going to take a look at what the Scriptures say about those four responses and then we're going to try to find in those responses some lessons that we can learn. But let's look at the story first, John chapter 11 beginning in verse 45 where we find the first response on the part of those that I think we can call the believers, the believers, verse 45. Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what Jesus did believed in him. These are people that saw the miracle, they were a part of the crowd that was with Mary and Martha grieving with them, helping to support them and provide care for them in this most difficult time in their lives and they had witnessed the miracle, they had breathed the graveside when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb, they had seen the miracle and recognized nobody but the son of God could do that. Certainly he is who he claimed to be, he is the son of God, come to this earth to be the Savior and they believed in him, they placed their faith in him. Now there must have been a significant number, the Bible says many, there must have been a significant number of them because the Pharisees are going to get kind of out of sorts about this and all amped up about the fact that this could bring the wrath of Rome down on the Jews, that it could create such a fure of people who are following Jesus that the Roman authorities would respond and the wrath of Rome would come down on Israel. So it must have been quite a significant group of people who trusted Jesus. Now I wonder this morning before we leave this particular group I wonder among this congregation, among all of those who are hearing my voice this morning, where do you fit? Would you be considered a part of the believers? Would you fit into that slice of the pie chart? Have you recognized who Jesus is? Have you seen who he is? What he has done that yes indeed God the Father sent him to this earth to be the Savior, to die for your sins, to pay the penalty for all of your sins when he died on the cross? Have you understood that? Have you seen that? And most of all have you believed in him? Have you trusted him as your Savior? So the first group of people are the believers and I hope it would be my prayer that everybody in this audience this morning would be in that group but there are several other groups represented in this public opinion poll and I fear that there may be some representatives of some of these other groups here this morning as well. So let's see what the text says about them. The second group I would call the informers. The informers, verse 46, but some of them indicating some of the many Jews mentioned back in verse 45 that had been there with Mary and Martha. Some of that crowd went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. They saw the same miracle. They saw the same demonstration of power but the implication is they did not believe. They did not trust Christ for who he said he was. In fact, they've got another agenda. They run to the Pharisees and report what Jesus has done. They know that the Pharisees will be disturbed at any new wave of popularity on the part of Jesus. They'll be upset with that and so they go to the Pharisees to kind of rat on Jesus, to tell on Jesus, why would they do that? Why would there be people who saw the same miracle that the believers saw, the same evidence of the power of Christ and respond in such a different way? I think there are at least two reasons, both of which I think are implied in our story. The first is I believe that we sometimes underestimate the hardness of the human heart when it comes to spiritual things. People's hearts can become just absolutely hard, palest, and their ears deaf to the things of God. And no matter what happens, there is a rebellious heart attitude against God that can be very hard indeed to break through. I think what we're seeing here is an example of what happened in the story that Jesus told in Luke 16. You remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus? The rich man ends up in hell and across this gap that cannot be crossed by him. He sees a man from his former life and his life on this earth who had died and gone to heaven. And he sees him and he asks Abraham whom he's speaking to across this great gulf. Please send someone to go warn my five brothers of this awful place so that they don't come here where I'm suffering in the torments of this flame in hell. And this was Abraham's response to him. He said to him, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. Now there were people who were convinced and who believed in Christ at the raising of Lazarus, but there's another segment of people whose hearts are so hard who are so turned against Christ that even if someone is raised from the dead, that's not enough to convince them. Sometimes I wonder after the gospel is preached and I've had some of you ask me this very thing, how could anyone not be saved today when they hear the gospel message from the Word of God? Here's one of the reasons why sometimes is because people's hearts are hard. Even if I could produce a resurrection here this morning, which I am not going to do and not capable of doing, but even if I were to produce someone who was clearly dead for four days and raised him from the dead, that would not convince some people because their hearts are already so hardened against the Lord. But I think there's a second reason why this group of informers did not turn in faith to Christ. I think the second reason is they had another agenda that was foremost in their hearts and minds. It was really their ambition and that is to carry the favor of those in authority. To put themselves on the good side of the Pharisees and the religious leaders in Israel. You see they know that the Pharisees will be upset about what Jesus has done and any popularity he may gain from that. And so they're going to go show by telling on him that they're siding with the religious leaders. Hey we're here to help you guys out. So we're coming to tell you what Jesus has done. Maybe they felt like that would give them some advantage, some inroad with the Pharisees and political leaders. And so you've got these informers that I believe have the the goal and the ambition of carrying favor with the leaders who are there. It is a selfish ambition. It is a selfish agenda and that can be very powerful. There are people who will sell their souls to get to where they want to get to in life. There are people who will turn their back on God, on Christ and on the only hope of heaven because it is their single ambition in life to climb to the top of their profession or to gain the the eye of those who are in power or to become the most popular kid in school. There are some who will do anything who will sell their soul for that. It is the promotion and the ambition of self to get ahead to make my mark in life to get all I can get and to be the best and recognized as number one to make it to the top. Some people have that as the ambition in life and they will forsake Christ, God and heaven in order to get that here. It is sad but many people do that and that evidently is the case with these folks. They would rather have the favor of the Pharisees than to have the favor of Christ and the hope of heaven because of faith in Christ. I'm reminded of something Jesus said in Mark chapter 8 and verse 36, he said, what good is it for someone to gain the whole world and forfeit their soul. Place it on the scales. On this side, place the whole world. I mean, think of it. Everything you could possibly gain in this world. Every position, every degree of fame and recognition, every material possession you could possibly attain in the world on this side in the scales. Way it out. It's right here. Nobody has ever done that by the way. Not the richest person or the most famous person on planet or nobody's ever done that. But let's just say you could do it. Let's say you could put everything in this world on this side and then go over to this side of the scales and weigh out your soul. And what Jesus is saying is that you're so far outweighs gaining the whole world and everything it has to offer. Your eternal soul, that part of you, which will live forever, that part of you that will continue to exist when your body stops functioning. When your body dies, there is a real you on the inside that will continue to live somewhere forever. That is your soul and that is of more value to you than all the earth. And yet there are some people who opt for this side of the scales. And I think they're represented with these informers. The people who said, oh, we can get in good with the Pharisees. Maybe we can get some advantage. Maybe given a political assignment or appointment if we get in good with the Pharisees. It is their ambition in life to make it to the top, to carry the favor of the right people in power. And they will sell their soul to do it. My friend, don't sell your soul for anything this world has to offer. There are lots of things in this world that people clamor for wealth and position and power. So many things, pleasures of this life, that people set their sights on and form their ambitions around. And that becomes your driving force. And you become enslaved to it. It's all you want in life. My friend, please wake up and realize that your soul is more valuable than all of that. If you could gain all of it, the world has to offer it cannot outweigh your soul. Give your soul to Jesus Christ. Trust Him as your Savior. Let Him control your life and be the center of attention in your life, the informers. But then the third group of people, the ones actually that this passage spends the most time talking about is the leaders. The leaders, they're the Pharisees and the other political and religious leaders, verse 47, then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin was kind of like Congress. It was the ruling body of Jews in Israel in that day. It was composed of 70 men. And these 70 men were drawn from the parties of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Some of them were chief priests, either current or former chief priests. Some of them were elders, just well respected elderly men in the community of Israel. They were the men who ran things, if you will. There were the ones who were given actually authority by the Roman Empire to make civil decisions in judicial decisions. They had a lot of power. They could not inflict capital punishment. That was not the only thing they couldn't do. But they were given a lot of freedom and power in Israel in the first century. And so it is this group of leaders that meets. They're going to try to decide what to do with Jesus. How do we respond to this great miracle? And notice what they say in the middle of verse 47, what are we accomplishing? They asked. Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him. And then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation. You see what they're saying? They're saying, you know what we're doing is not working. You know, we're not making any headway in our attempt to discredit him with the crowd. He just keeps on doing miracles. And the more signs and miracles he does, the more people that are following him. I mean, hey, if it keeps going on like this, everybody will be following him soon. And if that happens, you know what will happen, don't you? Rome will not sit by idly for that. They will send their troops down here and take away our temple and our nation and our authority to rule. They will take away our position and everything we have. This man, Jesus is the biggest threat we have ever faced and we've got to do something about it. Notice one of them speaks up with a solution, verse 49, then one of them named Caiaphas who was high priest that year spoke up. You know nothing at all. Sounds like a nice guy, doesn't he? By the way, this is consistent with what the Jewish historian Josephus would write about Caiaphas. He was rude, arrogant. You know nothing at all. The rest of you are 70 leaders of the nation. You know nothing at all. You do not realize, he says in verse 50, you do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish. What he's saying is, come on, guys, let's just weigh this thing out here. On the one side, we've got the whole nation. That's what you're talking about. You're talking about losing our nation. You're talking about our nation dying. Well, I got another idea. Why don't you get rid of the troublemaker? Get rid of the person who might bring the wrath of room down on us. Kill Jesus. Get rid of him and you save the nation. So he dies in place of the nation. That's his cold, cruel line of thinking. He's a true politician. His answer is viciously simple. Only one man has to die instead of the nation. Now John picks up on that as he writes this account. Look what he says about that in verse 51. He did not say this on his own, but his high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation. And not only for that nation also, but also for the scattered children of God to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on, they plotted to take his life. John says something amazing about Caiaphas' statement. And that is that really he was prophesying. Now, Caiaphas was not a prophet in the strict biblical sense of the word. He was not a man commissioned by God to give forth his truth, but a prophet speaks forth the truth of God. And what John is saying is that in a way that Caiaphas could never have imagined what he said was true. Just in a different way, but it was true. One man would die in the stead of the nation. Jesus would die in place of instead of the nation. But Caiaphas had no idea how that was really going to work out in God's plan. Because unlike what Caiaphas was thinking, Jesus would not die to rescue the people from political death and political harm. Jesus would die to rescue people from spiritual death and spiritual harm. That's why Jesus would die on the cross. And although Caiaphas is talking about sacrificing one man instead of the nation, John says, you know, that's exactly what Jesus did. Just not in the way Caiaphas thought. It was not a political ransom that Jesus bought on the cross. It was a spiritual ransom. It was Jesus dying for his nation, dying for his sheep, Israel, but not only for the nation, also for the scattered children of God, probably referring to Gentiles. The scope of the cross is far broader than just Jews. It goes also to the world, to the Gentiles, to others. And they will all be made one, bring them together and make them one. People from all over the world will hear this message of the gospel. And that is the commission we have as a church to make sure that people all over the world hear the message of Christ and the gospel. And trust Jesus as their Savior at least had that opportunity. So those are the leaders. That's how they respond. There's one other response to what happened with Lazarus. And it is the response of the Savior. In verse 54, we find his response. Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead, he withdrew to a region near the wilderness to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples. Ephraim is about 15 miles northeast of the city of Jerusalem. It's out in the wilderness of Judea. It's out in a very barren area where he's going to kind of regroup with his disciples and spend some time instructing them and preparing them for the events soon to come when he makes his way into Jerusalem for the last week of his life. But for now he is out of harm's way in the sense of the plot of the Pharisees to take his life. The reason Jesus does that is not because he's afraid. Not because he's afraid of the Pharisees or afraid of dying. It's because he knows it's not the Father's time yet for him to die. Everything Jesus was doing was within the Father's framework of time. It was within the Father's plan. And so Jesus moves off of the scene because he knows that the opposition is at a fever pitch. And if there's any way they can catch him, they will kill him. It's not time for that yet. So he will remove himself from that opportunity so that he will die in God's time and God's way at God's appointed place. That's the response of the Savior. Now it is just weeks maybe even days before the Passover and the chapter finishes out with the lead up to the Passover that Jesus will attend. Look at verse 55. When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. They kept looking for Jesus. And as they stood in the temple courts, they asked one another, what do you think? Is it coming to the festival at all? But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him. Now the next time Jesus shows up in Jerusalem, that will be the climate. That will be the climate into which he comes. He is public enemy number one. He is at number one on the most wanted list now. And anybody who finds him, let us know where he is so that we can arrest him and have him killed. That will happen. The next time Jesus goes into the city. But then it will be in God's time and for God's purpose. Those are the responses of people to Jesus miracle. But as we kind of back up a step now and look again at the whole scope of what we've seen in this story, I think there are at least four lessons we can learn from these responses. The first one is this. A changed life is a powerful testimony. A changed life, resurrection life in a person's life is a powerful testimony. That was certainly true with Lazarus. I mean everybody is buzzing about the fact that here's a man who was dead and now he's alive. Have you heard the story? Have you seen him? Incredible buzz was going around about this. In fact, let's fast forward the tape a little bit to chapter 12 just to get a feel for what it's going to be like when Jesus does show up for the Passover. Kind of the excitement chapter 12 verse 1, six days before Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. And that will kind of become the thought that sweeps through this whole chapter. Skip down to verse 9. Meanwhile, a large crowd of Jews found out that Jesus was there and came not only because of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well. For on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him. So you see the atmosphere, the tension, the build-up of excitement at this Passover. There are still huge crowds of people that are wanting to see Lazarus. They've heard about this incredible miracle. They want to see Lazarus. They want to see Jesus and the chief priests are fit to be tied. We got to get rid of not only Jesus now, but we got to get rid of Lazarus too. What were they thinking? Kill the man that Jesus raised from the dead? Really? Are you serious? You're going to kill the man that Jesus raised from the dead. Okay. How's that going to work out for you? The 10th verse 17. Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word. Many people because they had heard that he had performed this sign went out to meet him. So the Pharisees said to one another, see this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him. I can just hear the frustration in their voices. This is getting out of control. This is the last week of Jesus' life in chapter 12. But what we see is that there is nothing that speaks into people's lives and hearts like a change life, a resurrection, new life. And my friend the same ought to be true of us. We saw last week that Jesus is still in the resurrection business. He is still raising people from the dead. It's just that now he is giving new life spiritually to people who were dead in transgressions and sins. The Bible says people who were dead spiritually are now being given new life. And Christ is coming into hearts and lives of people in radically revolutionary change of life is taking place. And our world needs to see that. The world needs to see that we're living in resurrection power that we are sold out committed to Jesus Christ because He's given us new life. And our changed lives, the resurrection life within us that is ever more striving to be like Jesus is so glowing that this world can't help but notice. Yes, it will anger some just like it did in Jesus' day. Yes, it will cause some to criticize and it will irritate others. Yes, but it will be a compelling attraction to many if they see Jesus being lived out in us. So let's take a resurrection life, a new life, a changed life into our neighborhoods, into our community, into our workplace, into the marketplace. Let's live as bloodbought, transformed new creations in Christ. And when we do that, somebody's going to sit up and take notice. They can't help but take notice because what we're doing the way we're living the way we're responding with such love, gentleness and kindness and yet boldness will not fail to draw some people to the Savior. The most compelling argument for Christ is you and me if we're living out the resurrection life, a changed life like we should. There is no argument that is stronger than that, than a changed life. Changed life is a powerful testimony. That's a lesson certainly we can learn from this story. Many believed in him because of the changed life they had seen, the new resurrection life in Lazarus. But there's a second lesson we can learn. Little different in tone, but it's this position and tradition can blind us to the truth. That was certainly true of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You know sometimes kind of looking at it from a distance and looking at this story, those of us on this side of the gospel and knowing Christ as we do, it's hard for us to imagine how these people could have been so opposed to Jesus, how they could have rejected him like they did, but they were blinded and they were blinded by their position and by their religious traditions. We saw them voice their fear. If this man keeps gaining more followers, we're going to lose our position. The Romans are going to come in and take away everything we have, including our temple, our nation. We lose our jobs, we lose our position, we will no longer be leading at all. They were afraid of losing their position and they were afraid because of their religious traditions. They were so bound by their religious traditions that they would not, they would not receive Christ. My friend, there are so many people today here in our community across our world who are held captive to position and tradition. There are people maybe even some here today who think, if I trust Jesus as my Savior, what will my family think? What will my boss think? What will happen to my career? Will I be able to progress further if I really come to Christ and sell myself out to him? What will happen to me? Some are so bound by religious traditions because of the way you grew up in your family, because of what your parents taught you, because of what your church may have taught you or your particular religion may have taught you. You are so bound by that. You don't feel like you can escape that. You don't want to turn your back on that. Yet, my friend, you're blinded by that to your need for Christ. Jesus is God's Son. He's not just some religious teacher that appeared on the historical scene and raised up a following behind him. He is God's Son sent to this earth to become our Savior because he was perfect. He had no sins of his own to die for, but he died in your place and in my place and took God's punishment for our sin when he died on the cross. But so many people are bound up in their religious traditions. They will not turn away from those. They're afraid to turn their back on those. My friend, do you recognize the choice that awaits you? Do you recognize that to turn your back on religion and turn to Christ means that you will be with him forever in heaven? To stick with the bondage and bonds of your religious traditions outside of Christ means that you will spend an eternity separated from God. Jesus made it clear when he said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, except by me, except through Christ. Position and tradition can blind us to the truth, but let me go a step beyond that. It can also blind the church to truth. Not only will position and tradition keep people from coming to Christ. Sometimes it keeps the church from being effective for Christ. Sometimes we get so bound up in traditions, good traditions that worked in the past, our religious traditions, our ways of doing ministry. Sometimes we get so caught up in those and bound to those. We institutionalize the success they brought a generation ago and we are so blinded by those methodologies that worked 40 years ago that we don't see what God's doing now and what He wants to do now. There are companies that have fallen prey to that. In the 1970s, the introduction of courts technology to to watches was just getting started and the greatest watchmakers in the world, 90% of the world market was held by the Swiss. They had the best watches in all the world, but they didn't like the idea of courts. Their watches were so mechanically brilliant and all of the little cogs and wheels all you got to do is wind them up and they keep good time. They were the best watches in the world and they closed their eyes to what was happening. Within 10 to 15 years, over 80% of Swiss watchmakers had closed down. There were 90,000 people in Switzerland working in the watch industry when it all settled down. There were 13,000 left working. It decimated those who were unwilling to see what was happening next. Same thing happened to Kodak. Kodak refused to move toward digital photography. You know the amazing thing? In 1975, the first digital camera was produced or invented made by Steve Sassoon who was a Kodak engineer. And when he showed it to his bosses, this is the way he characterized. In 1975, the corporate response to his invention. Here's this. He said, but it was filmless photography, so management's reaction was that's cute, but don't tell anyone about it. And Kodak lived in denial for another 30 years. Until finally in 2007, they pushed a big campaign called Kodak is back, but they weren't. In five years later in 2012, they declared bankruptcy. Why? Because they were unwilling to change the old ways to move to something new. There are churches all around us dying for that same reason. Because they are so bound up in the traditional way of doing ministry, the old traditions of the past, which were great 40 years ago. We don't live in that world anymore. We live in a new world, a new transition to a new culture, and a new generation of people. And we've got to see what God is doing to reach this generation. Let me give you an example. I grew up in the revivalism culture of the American church. I grew up with that. I loved that. My first church in the 70s in North Carolina, we had two revivals every year. And that was the culture of that time because people were willing in the community to come out to church for a revival service, and lots of people got saved. But also lots of churches began to think that is the way God does His work. And if you change that, you're changing God's work. Did you know that revivals never really existed until the 1820s? Charles Finney started them, not even the ministry of Whitfield and Wesley was the typical revival setting. It started by Finney in the 1820s. And God used it for 130 years or so. Great evangelists came on the scene and led citywide campaigns, DL Moody and J. Wilbur Chapman and Billy Sunday and Bob Jones and so many others, great evangelists of their time. The last national evangelist that had that kind of effect was Billy Graham. But a new generation came up that resisted that kind of mass appeal and resisted the idea of being invited to church so that they could be pounced on, taken advantage of and given the gospel. That's the way a new generation began to feel about that. And so revival meetings became kind of a time for the saints to get excited, but people were not getting saved anymore. When I came here in the 90s, when I came here in 1990, we began to see that there were other ways that God seemed to be moving us to reach people with the gospel. And so we made some transitions away from those kinds of special meeting type of things, more toward target ministries that find out where people are hurting in our community and reach out to them with the gospel. And so we started ministries in the 90s like Mobs and divorce care and grief share and ministries like that. And we began to see people come who did not know Jesus. And I see some people sitting here this morning that were saved through those ministries. And that's still going on today through ministries like celebrate recovery where you target a great need in our area and community and reach out to people with the love of Jesus and introduce the gospel to them. And we see people come into Christ that way. In five or 10 years, there may be an entirely different way that God is moving and working. We've got to stay sensitive to where our culture is moving and where our people are and how to reach them most effectively with the gospel. There is no particular method. The message never changes. The gospel never changes. The word of God never changes. But the methods we use to get it to people have to change. And we will die if we stick with tradition and are not open to new methodologies of getting the gospel out. I am fully aware that we need to be more creative in the use of technology. I'm no good at that. I don't know much about it, but I know some young people here who do. And I'm thankful that that we're able to unleash them to help us with that to use the technology of the day to get the gospel out to more people. We have got to stay up with the methodology of the time or we will die. There are churches all around us dying because they're not willing to say what is God doing now? How is he reaching people now? Tradition can blind us to the truth as well. Third lesson, I believe we can learn quickly in this. God can bring good out of bad. God can bring good out of bad. Here are evil men making wicked plans to do horrible things. And God used it. Here are people plotting to kill Jesus. And God will use that to accomplish his purpose for Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Peter knew that. Peter caught that. And Peter talked about that in the very first sermon he ever preached in the book of Acts chapter 2. Look at what Peter said in Acts 2.23. He said, this man speaking of Jesus was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. And you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. Notice the two things that are going on here. There are wicked men who in conjunction with the Jewish leaders put Jesus to death. But God was using even the evil that men do to accomplish his purpose. God is not in favor of evil. God does not motivate people to do evil. But God will redeem even the evil wicked acts of people to accomplish his purpose. And it was the very wicked acts of people that God used to cause his son to go to the cross and die for our sins. God would use that to accomplish untold spiritual blessing and his purpose. If we can trust him to do that with the greatest event of human history, certainly, can we not trust him to do that with our lives? Can we not trust him to take even the evil that is done to us? The hardship and difficulty in trial that we experience in this life and bring good out of that? Can we not trust him to do that? This is the greatest example of that in human history. And if he's done the greatest, he can certainly do it in your life and in mine. Fourth lesson is this. God is in control of the timetable. If we can only learn to trust him with that, a decree has been passed, a legal decision has been made this day in the Sanhedrin that we're going to arrest him and killing, but it's not time yet. Jesus knows that. It's not God's time yet. And it will not happen until it is God's time. There's still some ministry for Jesus to do. There's still some preparation of his disciples and some of the ministry that's included and some of the other gospels will happen before Jesus dies. And so Jesus leaves the area until the last trip to Jerusalem six days before his death. God's timetable is what's running things in Jesus' life. Can we trust him that he is in control of the timing in our own lives? I will be the first to admit I don't always understand why things happen in the timetable they do. You know the old expression when it rains at pours? You feel that way a lot, don't you? It seems like when trials or difficulties come, they come in bunches and you find yourself shaking your head and wondering about the timing of these things. Can we trust him his timetable that he is going to work out his purpose and plan in his timetable? Can we trust him for that? I believe we can. If you were in that crowd that day that witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus and as you're leaving shaking your head that reporter from the Jerusalem Daily Telegraph catches it by the sleeve says I want your feeling, I want your impressions. What do you think about this man Jesus? What do you say about him? What would you say? Who is Jesus to you? What does he mean to you? Well known author Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, writes in one of his books that there was a Sunday school teacher in 1970 who said something in a class that changed his life. There was a simple illustration but it changed his life. He said that teacher said this. Let's assume the distance between the earth and the sun which is about 93 million miles. Let's assume that that distance is reduced to the thickness of a sheet of paper. 93 million miles, thickness of a sheet of paper. With that in mind the teacher went on to say if that is the case then the distance between the earth and the earth is the distance between the earth and the nearest star would be a stack of papers 70 feet high. The distance between the earth and the sun is the equivalent of one thickness of paper. To go to the nearest star from earth would be a stack of those papers 70 feet high twice as high as the apex of the roof of this auditorium. But the nearest star is just a little spec in our galaxy and the diameter of our galaxy would be a stack of those papers 310 miles high. That's the width of our galaxy, the diameter of our galaxy. But it doesn't stop there. Our galaxy is only a stack of dust in the universe. And you know what the Bible says about that don't you? Look it up in Isaiah 40. I think it's verse 12. God holds the heavens the universe in the span of his hand. The distance between the end of my thumb and the end of my little finger. God holds that universe in the span of his hand. And that teacher went on to say this. Now is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant? Change Tim Keller's life forever. And if you think about it it will yours too. That's who Jesus is. The one who created the vast expanses of this universe. Who can measure it between the breadth of his hand. And we can't even imagine how vast it is. That same Jesus was willing to come down to this earth and take on a human body. And get this. Suffer and die. To take your place and pay for your sin. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around that kind of love. Who is Jesus to you? What do you think of him? What is your response to who he is and what he's done? Let's examine that in prayer. Father. You are great. You are awesome. And yet you love us. You love us enough to send your son and Jesus loved us enough to come and be willing to die for us. Father, I pray for those in this audience this morning who may have never believed that message and placed their faith in confidence in Christ. I pray that today they would come to Jesus as Savior. That they would not be so full of ambition for position and favor of others. That they would be afraid to come to Christ. I pray that they would not be so blinded by tradition and religion that they would be afraid to come to Christ. I pray that they would come to the Savior today. It's in his name we pray. Amen.